1. Congressional
Officers

2. The House of Representatives

3. 6 Purposes of the House Leadership
Organize and unify party members.
Scheduling the work of the Houses.
Making certain that law makers are present for key floor votes.
Distributing and collecting information.
Keeping the House in touch with the President.
Influencing lawmakers for support of policies their party wants.

4. Who is the presiding officer of the House of Representatives?
Republican
Speaker
of the
House
John Boehner
* From Ohio
*Second in Line to the Presidency of the United States.
Is the presiding officer of the House and holds the most power.
We have a caucus meeting (closed meeting) of the majority party who chooses this position and this happens at the start of each session. (what’s a session again?)
Speaker presides over sessions of the house, can influence proceedings by deciding which members to recognize first. Appoints the members of some committees, schedules bills for action, and refers bills to the proper house committee. Finally the speaker of the house follows the VP in line of succession.
Today speakers rely as much on persuasion as on their formal powers to exercise influence. Usually on a typical day a speaker may talk with dozens of fellow congress men and women. Since he listens he expects representatives support on many important issues.
Speaker = very powerful position

5. Who is the presiding officer of the House of Representatives?
Speaker of the House:
Presides over sessions
Influence proceedings by
Which members are recognized first
Schedules bills for action
Refers bills to right house committee
Appoints members of some committees.
Is the presiding officer of the House and holds the most power.
We have a caucus meeting (closed meeting) of the majority party who chooses this position and this happens at the start of each session. (what’s a session again?)
Speaker presides over sessions of the house, can influence proceedings by deciding which members to recognize first. Appoints the members of some committees, schedules bills for action, and refers bills to the proper house committee. Finally the speaker of the house follows the vp in line of succession.
Today speakers rely as much on persuasion as on their formal powers to excerise influence. Usually on a typical day a speaker may talk with dozens of fellow congress men and women. Since he listens he expects representatives support on many important issues.

6. Who is the #2 officer in the House of Representatives?
There is not one.
If the Speaker must be gone, then the Majority Leader steps in for a few days.

7. Who are the other leaders of the House of Representatives?
House Majority Leader
Eric Cantor
Right hand person to the Speaker
Help push through bills
Often ‘bugs’ other members in
committee to get a move on.
Majority Whip
Kevin McCarthy
Watchdog to see how people
are planning to vote.
Persuade people to do as
the party wishes.
Republicans
Called House Floor Leaders:
Majority leader- speakers top assistant is this and his job is to help plan the party’s legislative program, steer important bills through the House, and make sure the chairpersons of the many committees finish work on bills that are important to that party. He is just a House official because the majority party picks the speaker to be the official majority leader.
Gets help through the Majority Whip job.
Majority whip: serve as assistant floor leaders in the House. His job is to watch how majority- party members intend to vote on bills, to persuade them to vote as the party wishes, and to see that party members are present to vote

8. Who are the other leaders of the House of Representatives?
House Minority Leader
Nancy Pelosi
House Minority Whip
Steny Hoyer
Democrats
The minority party elects its own leaders. They have the responsibilities much like the majority leaders except they have no power over scheduling work in the House.
Can’t Schedule work in the House.

9. The Senate
Chamber is smaller than the House chamber. Usually only a few senators are attending session. The party leaders or their assistants stay in the Senate chamber at all time
Have 100 desks one for each senator- facing a raised platform where the president pro tem and another senator preside over sessions.
Each senator buys own chair $ and can take it when they leave.
Senate rules are more flexible than in the House. Designed to make certain that all senators have maximum freedom to express their idea. Example they can debate an issue or proposal on and off for weeks or months before they take action on it.

10. The Senate Leaders Has no Speaker position.
Permits more freedom in Senators activities.
Party leaders do not have more influence over other senators.

11. Who is the presiding officer of the Senate?
The Vice President of the U.S. who has the title of “President of the Senate.”
Joe Biden
Can cast a vote in case of a tie.
When VP is not there (most of the time) the president pro tempore takes over.
He/she is elected with the President of U.S.
The constitution lists the VP as the President of the Senate.
VP has power to:
Recognize members and put questions to a vote.
Be they are not elected they may not take part in senate debates.
He can cast a vote in senate only when the situation warrants it such as a tie.
because of his lack of power he usually deals with more Executive issues.
When VP is not in the Senate the President pro tempore fills in for him.
Democrat

12. Who is #2 in the Senate? mocratDe Patrick Leahy President Pro- Tempore
From Vermont
First Elected in 1976
Currently serving his seventh term
mocratDe
President Pro-Tempore:
presides for VP- Pro-termpore= “for the time being”.
The senate elects this leader and he or she is from the majority party and is usually the most senior member.
Patrick Leahy

13. Who are the other leaders in the Senate?
Senate Majority Leader
Harry Reid
Makes sure people are attending meetings for his party and gets support on important bills
Majority Whip
Richard Durbin
Assists the Majority leader.
Makes sure legislators are present for key votes.
Democrats
Are elected by the members of political parties and be of that they are party officials instead of just official senate officials.
Majority leader: to steer the party’s bills through the senate. To do this they plan the senates works schedule and agenda in consultation with the minority leader. They are also responsible for making certain the majority party members attend important sessions and organize their support for a key bill.
Majority Whip: assist the majority leader by making sure legislators are present for key votes. .

14. Who are the other leaders in the Senate?
Minority Leader
Mitch McConnell
Develops criticisms for majority party’s bills
Minority Whip
Texan John Cornyn
Republicans
Minority leader: responsible for developing criticism of the majority partys bills and tries to keep senators in the minority party working together
Minority Whip: assist the majority leader by making sure legislators are present for key votes

15. The most important are the committee chairpersons.
In both the Senate and the House of Representatives, there are other leaders.
The most important are the committee chairpersons.

16. Committees Committees This is where all the work is done
Each Congressman is a member (or chair) of several committees
Some committees are more powerful/exciting than others; selection to a committee based on tenure, politics, and constituency needs
Allows members to become specialists
Committees do most of the work of congress. In the House the committee work is more important than in the senate. Why?
Because the House membership is so large its members must organize themselves to smaller groups in order to accomplish anything efficiently.
Different representatives will tend to specialize in a few issues that are important to their constituents (people in the districts they represent.) This is where we have issues such as interest groups come into play.

17. Special Interest Groups and Political Parties
Committees
Special Interest Groups and Political Parties
Special Interest Groups: Representatives who represent a communities specific interest to produce solutions for that particular field.
Example: Global Warming, Environmental Groups, Libraries, Education, Racial Groups, Wildlife Protection, etc.
Political Parties: Many procedures in Congress are organized around political party affiliation.
Example: Republicans sit on one side of Congress and Democrats sit on the other side, Power to organize each branch of Congress.
Why are special interest groups important?
Read slide
Political party affiliation: many procedures in congress are organized around political party. Depending on which party holds the larger numbers of members they will have majority party in Congress and be able to choose flow of legislative work, and appoints committee chairs.

18. Committee Chairpersons
Make the important decisions: when they will meet, which bills to consider, and for how long
Decide on experts & witnesses to be called/allowed
Manage floor debates on bills from their committees

19. House: Rules Committee
One of the most powerful committees
Decides how and when a bill will be considered (controls flow of traffic)
Can move a bill up on the Calendar
Can also place a time limit on debate
House rules committee:
Serves as the traffic officer in the house by helping to direct the flow of major legislation. It is one of the oldest house committees, and most powerful.
can move a bill up on the calendar or hold a bill back or stop it completely.
Because of this power this committee has been a source of political battles.
Pete Sessions – R TX

20. House Rules Committee Function
Once bills have reached the floor of the House for debate and for a vote to do so by this committees “rule”
Once major bills come out of this committee then they are entered in the Union calendar.
Union calendar- lists bills dealing with money issues.
Where rules committee can request for bill to be moved up in voting process.
Need a quorum for business to happen- 218 members needed.